Henderson County deputies exchanged gunfire with another person Tuesday night after responding to a report of suspicious activity at a home on Fletcher View Drive. No law enforcement officers were injured, and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation has been asked to take over the case.
According to the Henderson County Sheriff's Office, deputies were sent to the residence Tuesday night to check out the suspicious-activity call. Once there, they encountered a person at the home, and the encounter turned into a gunfight. The sheriff's office said no deputies were hurt, but the condition of the other person involved has not been reported.
The sheriff's office said the State Bureau of Investigation, the agency that routinely reviews officer-involved shootings statewide, has been asked to begin its own investigation into Tuesday's exchange. As of now, the person's identity, the sequence of events during the shootout, and whether that person was hurt all remain unreported.
A County With a Recent History of Officer-Involved Shootings
Tuesday's incident is not the first time Henderson County has turned to the SBI to sort out a confrontation between deputies and an armed person. In April 2024, the agency investigated a fatal officer-involved shooting after deputies responded to a disturbance at North Mills River Campground, according to BPR. That shooting left one man dead, and the deputies involved were placed on administrative leave while the investigation moved forward, the station reported.
A separate 2024 case, stemming from the April 13 pursuit of 29-year-old Hayden Brook, ended months later with a different outcome. District Attorney Andrew Murray concluded that the responding deputies were legally justified in firing their weapons, according to the Hendersonville Lightning. Murray determined that the first shot deputies heard that day was actually a fatal, self-inflicted contact wound to Brook's head, and he directed the SBI to close its case.
Another Shooting Earlier This Year
Just months before Tuesday's exchange, a Hendersonville officer-involved shooting in March left a man in his 20s injured at an apartment complex on Hebron Road, WLOS reported. The State Bureau of Investigation led that inquiry as well, and the man was shot once and taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the agency's account relayed to the station.
No information has been released about who the person involved in Tuesday's Fletcher View Drive exchange was, what led up to the gunfire, or whether that person was struck. The Henderson County Sheriff's Office has not provided further updates beyond confirming that its deputies were unharmed and that the state investigation is now underway.
